(Photo by Michael Caterina/University of Notre Dame)
More than 7 million people were incarcerated in the jail system in 2022, with roughly 660,000 detained on any given day, many awaiting trials or prison sentences. Jail stays can be long, up to a year or more, and there has been an increase in the average length of stay over the past 15 years, made worse by case backlogs from the COVID-19 pandemic.
About one quarter of inmates have a serious mental illness and 63 percent struggle with drug dependence or abuse, often coinciding with behavioral problems. Those awaiting trial for serious offenses may tend toward violence, making jail time dangerous for both inmates and jail employees. In addition, the county jail system, which is often viewed as a short-term, transitional time period for inmates, is typically overlooked for providing meaningful therapy opportunities and other interventions.
A new study by University of Notre Dame researchers shows that introducing a unique and low-cost cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program for longer-term jail inmates teaches lifelong skills and reduces violent behavior — making the jail safer in the long run.
“Despite the fact that most people are in jail for a short time, many spend months serving a sentence or even years awaiting trial,” said Mary Kate Batistich, an assistant research professor in the Department of Economics who works in Notre Dame’s Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO).
“These inmates often come into the jail system with traumatic pasts and with much higher rates of mental illness and substance use disorders than the general population,” she said. “Violence is an issue in jails, as are behavioral problems, with suicide and homicide rates much higher than you’d think, considering that this population is confined and surveilled.”
In their working paper, Batistich’s research team reported that inmates who participate in CBT programs experience a 49 percent drop in behavioral incidents and a 50 percent drop in physical assaults on other inmates or officers.
Mary Kate Batistich is an assistant research professor in the Department of Economics and works in Notre Dame’s Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO). (Photo by Peter Ringenberg/University of Notre Dame)
Batistich, along with co-authors William Evans, the Keough-Hesburgh Professor of Economics at Notre Dame and co-founder of LEO, Tyler Giles of Wellesley College and Rebecca Margolit-Chan of Cornell University, examined Step Up, a CBT program administered to inmates at the Lubbock County Detention Center in Lubbock, Texas. Designed for individuals with violent backgrounds or tendencies, the program uses a combination of group classes, one-on-one counseling and a structured workbook to help participants recognize and manage emotions.
Through a self-paced 14- to 21-week curriculum, participants learn how to identify their emotions and the physical sensations that accompany them. The goal is for the inmates to learn to recognize their emotions and change their way of thinking — from making negative behavioral choices to adopting rational and constructive behaviors — as a way to peacefully resolve conflict.
“The underlying philosophy of the program is that although individuals experience negative events (such as an unpleasant confrontation with another person), it is one’s interpretation of the event, rather than the event itself, that leads to negative reactions such as anger and violence,” the researchers wrote.
Typically within a jail system, authorities will respond to more serious behavioral infractions by placing the inmate in solitary confinement, where it is estimated that about 4.4 percent of the incarcerated population is held at any point in time, according to the study.
“There’s been research suggesting that solitary confinement can actually be very harmful to the individual, both psychologically and physically,” Batistich said. “This form of discipline may not even be making the institutions any safer. What we’re doing in this paper is offering an alternative by promoting therapy over punitive measures.”
And this alternative is not only replicable on a national scale, but cost effective as well, according to the researchers.
“There is a real intersection between the criminal justice system and poverty, homelessness, mental illness and substance use disorders. Incarcerated individuals are often dealing with several of these issues and also tend to be overlooked and underserved. These are the people in most need of our care and attention.”
The cost of implementing the Step Up program — including supplies, curriculum books and personnel — is an average of $618 per participant. Leveraging existing jail space and staff capacity, along with instruction by graduate students at nearby Texas Tech University, have made it possible to keep costs down.
The researchers concluded that therapy designed to reduce violent behavior in jails works well when implemented during incarceration, while participants are kept to a consistent and intensive treatment regimen as they await trial or extended incarceration. Such treatment can “improve one’s behavior in the near term, increase safety within institutions and potentially benefit public safety as well,” they wrote.
“There is a real intersection between the criminal justice system and poverty, homelessness, mental illness and substance use disorders,” Batistich added. “Incarcerated individuals are often dealing with several of these issues and also tend to be overlooked and underserved. These are the people in most need of our care and attention.”
Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu